Cons

Built-in Volusion Blog: There is no built-in blog available on this platform which is a real shame for the many who rely on one to increase visibility. Blog integration is possible but is an added demand

SSL Certificates: Security demands that SSL certification should be in place. This is securely offered by Volusion, but unlike competitors this comes at an extra cost

Introduction: What is Volusion?

Welcome to our Volusion review. It is a long-standing member of the hosted eCommerce platform arena and was first introduced in 1999. Where it differs is in its ease of use and set-up, features offered and analytical abilities. We certainly will not forget to mention pricing either!

Overview: Our Volusion review could be the solution to your eCommerce needs.

There are many online retailers who prefer a hosted solution to meet their selling needs and opting for a Volusion solution certainly offers this.

Using the power of a Volusion website store will give you a full toolkit that majors on the operational side of any ecommerce business you run. Our Volusion review certainly sees it as a platform that leans towards operational features such as: Inventory and Customer management rather than marketing led features.

Ease of use:

A relatively easy to use interface makes Volusion attractive to both novices and the more experienced online store retailers.

Navigation is extremely straightforward and there are some very good support videos available on the dashboard. The most important steps needed to build your Volusion store are clearly highlighted in the main area.

Features and Flexibility:

The popularity of using the Volusion ecommerce platform for your online store has a lot to do with the number of features that are directly built into the dashboard.

Our Volusion review will touch on just a few of these shortly, but for online businesses the wealth of built-in features means there is no need to be constantly purchasing paid for Volusion apps.

Out of the box:

The comprehensive ‘out of the box’ features that come with a Volusion store offer everything required to get your store up and running. Here are just a few highlights that can be taken advantage of immediately:

Coupons

Establishment of a rewards program

Newsletters

Affiliates goods and services

Purchase order tracking

Inventory management

Advance shipping options

Currency tools that enable you to sell across the globe

Customer review options

Ease of integration with sites such as Facebook

Live & Abandoned cart features *Manual emails need to be sent as follow up. This is not automated

Themes & Templates:

There are 11 free themes and 34 premium ‘paid-for’ themes priced at the same rate: $180 – So, for budgeting purposes, those businesses looking at purchasing a premium theme will know exactly what they are paying regardless of which premium theme they choose

3rdparty Apps market:

Volusion want you to customise and expand your store through the use of 3rdparty apps. Through their ‘Zapier’ feature the company supports in excess of 1,000 ‘Volusion’ apps. These cover a very broad spectrum meaning you should find exactly what you are looking for

Hosting:

The Volusion ecommerce platform is fully hosted this means that Volusion look after all of your hosting needs. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but it is important to note that you must have and pay for an annual SSL certificate. This is obviously good for security reasons but other similar platforms include it in the annual subscription package

Backups:

Again, as the service is fully hosted, backups are the responsibility of Volusion. This relieves the task of taking your own backups

Migration:

Anyone who already has an online shop and is looking to migrate to a Volusion store can be assured of assistance from the Volusion technical team.

eCommerce tools:

The Volusion ecommerce tools available for use offer a strong suite of functions. These include:

Inventory & Analytical tools:

These are the real strength of Volusion and outmatch others in the hosted online selling sector

Rich content editor:

Easy to use, intuitive, allows changes to be made on the fly. There is no backend coding required

Navigation editor:

A variety of navigational styles are designed to help users browse with ease

Advanced search tools:

These allow visitors to quickly and easily locate items

Product Pages:

The option to customise your product pages by adding such things as sub-categories and uploading images is yours. This recently introduced feature allows you to fully merchandise products through multiple photos, videos and specific item details

Homepage slideshow:

Volusion store owners can easily highlight products and current discounts directly onto their home page

CSS editor:

Use of the CSS editor function allows Volusion website owners to take their site design to another level

Order processing:

Ease of order process. A particular positive is the fact that this feature allows Volusion website owners to process orders by telephone

Gateway & Payment processing:

Secure checkout:

A PCI-certified checkout process offers peace of mind for you and your customers

Shipping options:

When it comes to dispatching goods you have functions that allow shipping types to be chosen, signature required, special discount offers, flat shipping options and the ability to set overall shipping rates

SEO and Mobility:

As mentioned in the ‘cons’ of our Volusion review article there is a mobile version of your site for those who access via mobile devices but this is actually a built-in site, not a responsive version of your website Dependent upon device, visitors get a difference experience when accessing your mobile presence. Volusion are working on this to come into line with a responsive version of online stores.

As for SEO functions the Volusion ecommerce platform is ASP-based. This relates to the programming framework the Volusion software is built on.

The reason for mentioning this is that anyone with SEO experience knows that ASP is generally very ‘website’ unfriendly for SEO. However, this is not the case for Volusion. Yes, there are certain SEO risks which need avoiding – particularly duplicate homepages and HTTPS redirects not properly implemented, but as an overall experience this platform offers a fairly robust SEO feature-set including such things as easy meta implementation thanks to built-in fields, content boxes on category pages, canonicalization options and XML sitemaps making it technically solid ‘out of the box’.

An Important SEO consideration:

An important point to consider here is for those with little SEO experience or those who prefer to focus on what they do best; promoting their business.

If you fall into this category then you should seek assistance from a professional SEO Digital Marketing company.The money invested in such a move will be more than made up for in the exposure benefits your brand receives and the time saved trying to optimise your SEO needs. Also it is important to consider SEO is more than what any website builder can fully provide such as off page link building.

Volusion Pricing:

Let’s get the free offer understood first before getting into the 3 mainstream flavours of Volusion pricing.

There is a free 14-day trial which this Volusion review strongly recommends you take advantage of. It will allow you to thoroughly test the platform and establish whether it is right for your brand and business style.

In terms of paid subscriptions. Volusion have modified their pricing plans and with Version 2 of the platform now offer 3 easy to understand plans.

We will explain each in brief followed by a link to the Volusion pricing page that gives extensive detail of what you get from each pricing tier:

Personal Plan:

This is your starter plan and is designed for smaller retailers and caps sales at $50,000 per year. There is also a ceiling on product upload of only 1 staff account and 100 products.

Although this is the entry level plan it will suit those just entering the ecommerce selling world because the 100-product allowance should be more than sufficient. It is also a good fit for those who sell a small number of unique products.

This is the only one of the 3 subscription plans mentioned where you do not get telephone support.

Professional Plan:

The second pricing plan is their Professional Plan and is targeted at Volusion website store owners selling up to $100,000 of goods per annum. Again, no transaction fees and unlimited bandwidth. The big jump is in the number of products that can be listed; up to a maximum of 5,000. Another addition is the ability to establish up to 5 staff accounts and thus allowing for delegation of responsibility and specific access levels.

This plan is seen as a good fit for small businesses who are already seeing online sales, and who want to up their game through the use of advanced features such as the importation of product data and the product ratings function.

Business Plan:

The third will be the high-end pricing plan with a cap for online sales with the business plan at $500,000 per annum (excluding phone orders). Once again, (and as you should expect!) no transaction fees and unlimited bandwidth.

This plan will suit mid to large size enterprises that have a healthy marketing budget in place. It will also afford those companies with design expertise an advantage due to the API access available. Such access makes it possible to change those pre-designed Volusion templates for ones you specifically want.

Note: There is a ‘PRIME’ custom plan available for the largest online ecommerce stores.

Monthly/Annual price subscription is dependent upon your needs and volume.

Sales need to be in excess of $500,000 per annum.

Those interested in this plan should discuss directly with the Volusion sales team

10% discount available for annual subscription (we have reflected this in above pricing)

No transaction fees across any plan

Credit card fees set at 2.15%

Free 14-day trial

While there will undoubtedly be interest in the above offers, those who are still unsure as to whether this pricing plan structure will fit their immediate and future needs, it is recommended that you also review other eCommerce platforms to achieve a comprehensive understanding of what is out there. To compare competitors within pricing please follow these links to Shopify store reviews,Weebly eCommerce review and WIX eCommerce review, our leading alternatives with better pricing and value with its plans.

Here is the link to the official Volusion pricing page which gives full ‘tick-box’ options of what you get for your money.

Conclusion and Recommendation:

So, our Volusion review conclusion; When it comes to competition, Volusion is in the same category as other big hitters in this arena. To compare this Volusion review with them please feel free to take a look at our comparison articles.

Deciding upon whether the Volusion ecommerce platform is a good fit for your specific business style and operation will depend on how well our Volusion review comments fit into your style of operation and business plans.

If marketing and/or design features are your priority then it may be better to take a closer look at Shopify, Weebly and Wix.

It must be remembered that for those looking to get a ‘feel’ for the Volusion ecommerce platform and the power it offers should take full advantage of the company’s free 14-day trial

One thing is for sure, those looking for an all-inclusive ecommerce platform offering everything required to begin, run and grow their online shop at a pace which suits should find the Volusion website functionality a tidy fit.

That’s all for now:

Thanks for reading our Volusion review and don’t forget to keep an eye out for our ever-growing blog of review and comparison articles. You may be interested in our related website builder, eCommerce platform review and comparison articles below;

Being a veteran in the website building and eCommerce game definitely has its benefits. Richard has long been in the industry with more than 10 years of experience with building websites and constructing eCommerce platforms for clients. He’s also a bit of a whiskey connoisseur.

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Stuart Kerrs helps people improve their daily life, both real and virtual. We help spread awareness and educates about cybersecurity and digital privacy. We try all the products and services we review. And we vouch for all the solutions we recommend. We promote the use of security and privacy software to protect users’ data and anonymity.

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